As he clambered out of the bath, his loose costume hanging about him in ridiculous folds, a roar of laughter went up from the fellows bathing there.
When they got back to the study they met Billy Faraday. He was grinning broadly. "I hear you've been teaching the inventor how to swim!" he laughed. "I believe he found the water quite wet?"
"Yes, comrade," answered Patch genially, "and so would you if only you were more familiar with that unknown quantity."
"Well, you ought—" began Billy; but he broke off with a sharp, "I say!"
"What's the matter?"
"The coat—it's gone! And the Star's in it, too!"
Jack and Septimus looked up in surprise, and were startled to observe that it was even as Billy had said—the coat was gone. They jumped up and made a hurried search.
"Jingo, this is serious!" murmured Jack. "It's gone, right enough. Wonder whether that beast Redisham—?"
"It's got misplaced, perhaps," said Patch, who had put down his book and joined in the hunt. "Mislaid somewhere or other—"
"But I never wear it!" said Billy. "How could it?"